Dam, who is also Head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, was speaking at an online meeting between the committee and leaders of Binh Duong province on June 23.
Reports heard at the meeting showed that since May 27, Binh Duong has recorded 164 new COVID-19 infections in the community, industrial parks and hostels, mainly related to the outbreaks in Ho Chi Minh City.
About 3,000 F1 cases (close contacts to infections) and 8,000 F2 cases (close contacts to F1s) have been traced, while community screening has been conducted with about 20,000 samples having been collected.
Binh Duong has 29 industrial parks with about 500,000 workers. Industrial zones are located in residential areas, so the risk of infection is complicated, according to the provincial authorities.
Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan agreed with the assessment, saying an inspection of a number of isolation facilities, blockade areas and worker hostels this morning showed that the risk of infection between industrial and residential areas is very high.
Thuan asked Binh Duong to increase its capacity for collecting samples, testing, isolation and treatment to be able to meet the requirements in the context of heightened epidemic developments.
In addition to sending medical supplies, the Ministry of Health will provide about 500,000 to 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for Binh Duong in July for local workers.
Binh Duong was also asked to require local factories to immediately provide a list of workers and their contact phone numbers, while urging them to carry out electronic medical declarations to identify high-risk factors as well as to focus on screening tests.
Deputy PM Dam emphasised that the risk of infection in Binh Duong is very high, not only in industrial parks but also in factories and businesses nearby.
With the recent outbreaks, Binh Duong needs to focus on zoning and testing quickly, while gradually narrowing the blockade, he suggested.
Along with strict zoning, local authorities in places that do not implement blockades and zoning need to ask local people to strictly follow pandemic prevention measures and restrict movement.
Earlier, this morning, a delegation from the Ministry of Health, led by Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son, Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, came to inspect the epidemic prevention and control work in Binh Dinh.
The delegation checked the dormitories of workers in Binh Hoa ward (Thuan An city) which has seen an outbreak with a large number of workers infected with COVID-19, a concentrated isolation camp at Ly Thai To High School in An Phu Ward (Thuan An city) and the Binh Duong Provincial General Hospital.
Son noted that epidemic prevention and control in the locality needs to be implemented more drastically, but this should not make local people and workers worry and panic. He suggested Binh Duong ban all means of entry and exit, especially in blocked areas with a high risk of community infection.
On the same day, the Lao Cai Provincial Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control announced that local functional forces had blocked four more locations in Lao Cai city, related to two newly-discovered infections on the evening of June 22. Up to now, Lao Cai has decided to blockade the Coc Leu market and seven other locations in the Coc Leu, Lao Cai and Duyen Hai wards in the city.
According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam reported 80 new COVID-19 domestic cases as of noon today, 70 of these detected in quarantine sites and sealed off areas.
Half of the new cases were detected in Ho Chi Minh City, 23 in Binh Duong, eight in Bac Giang, four in Hung Yen, two each in Lao Cai and Long An and one in Bac Kan.
As of noon on June 23, Vietnam had 1,717 imported and 12,145 domestic infections. As many as 10,575 local infections have been confirmed since the fourth wave of outbreaks hit the country on April 27, including 2,772 recoveries.
Of those still undergoing treatment at medical facilities, 377 have tested negative for the coronavirus once, 132 twice and 141 thrice.
Eighteen localities have not seen any new infections in the community for two weeks.
